How To Improve Your Presence In Your Online Webinar

Hi there, I thought I would introduce myself for those that don’t me or MyOhMy Events. I am Lorna Reeves of MyOhMy Events, we are a company that creates aspirational business events for our clients, be that business owners or entrepreneurs, that want to connect with and serve their clients in a better way, either as face-to-face events or online and through our online hosting services.

Today, I want to share with you three important tips that will make all the difference when it comes to delivering online through webinars. We all want to appear as professional as possible, so I thought I would share my own experience and tips here:

Tip One: Positioning

When you’re setting up your laptop (it’s always best to use your laptop rather than a mobile device) try to make sure that your camera is eye level with you. We’ve all been to those webinars when all you can see is the up-the-nostril shot! Not very professional.

Being eye level helps you breathe better and deliver better. It also means that you connect on a more human level making it feel like a more like a natural conversation.

Tip Two: Lighting

Make sure that you are lit from the front. Natural lighting is the ideal option, where possible position your desk or your setup so that you’ve got some natural light coming in towards your face (also great for evening out your skin tone – you’re welcome!).

Make sure that you don’t have backlighting; where your face and body looks really dark and your background is all lit up.

If natural light just isn’t an option (due to space or holding an evening event), try setting up lighting from the front. I’ve got a ring light here, available at great prices on Amazon. Get that ordered and set up, so you get some natural, even lighting, avoiding any harsh shadows.

It will make you look a bit smarter and a bit more professional and avoid distractions for your audience.

Tip Three: It’s behind you!

Think about what’s going on in the background. I’m all about business and I adore books, so I’ve got some books set up. I’m in the process of turning them all around so you can see that all the pages are sticking out. It’s my aim to have them all this way so that it’s not distracting.

People still realize that I’m sitting in front of a bookcase, but it’s not distracting, it’s got too much light and color going on in the background. Alternatively, you could do something nifty with your bookcase, which I have seen recently and might give a try: color coordinating your books, having your books move through transitions of color from blue to purple to red to pink to orange and just creating a sense of evenness, an order in your background but still getting those pops of color? Just a suggestion.

Do what you can to make yourself look like you’re in an office or professional environment. If you can avoid having the washing up in the background, washing airers (we’ve seen a few) or bits of chunky furniture jutting into the background and if you have a glass door anywhere on screen please remind your loved ones that your audience will be able to see them!

If all else fails; get yourself in front of a blank wall, be it patterned wallpaper or a plain-white magnolia wall, it just makes sure that the focus is on you. Bonus tip: try to make sure you wear something of colour. If you wear white or black, you tend to fade into the background and when people have got their gallery view open and they can see everybody’s faces, you want to be the one standing out wearing a pop of color.

So there you have it, my three top tips for getting super professional results when you’re delivering your workshops and webinars.

A gift for your online event

I have produced a guide that you can hand out to your participants, and I’ve also got a holding slide that you can use at the front of your slide deck, which gives people guidance when they join your Zoom meeting, an idea of what all the buttons do and so on.

Your participants can remain at their screen and learn how to get the best from the webinar tools whilst you’re all waiting for people to arrive. This also means that you don’t have to repeat yourself as people join.

I’m more than happy to share both of these with you. Just drop me an email over at lorna@myohmyevents.com and I’ll get those freebies over to you very shortly. Once you start to implement them let me know how you get on. Take care. Have an awesome day.